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Green Bay Packers: Clay Matthews' hit sparks war of words with 49ers

By Tyler DunneMilwaukee Journal Sentinel

Posted:
09/10/2013 12:01:00 AM CDT

Updated:
09/10/2013 07:45:18 AM CDT

San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) runs out of bounds as Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews dives for him during the second quarter in San Francisco, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- This isn't quite Brett Favre in the NFC Championship Game or Terrell Owens crying on the sideline.

But a new rivalry, a heated rivalry between the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers is brewing. Jim Harbaugh made sure of that.

On Monday, one day after the 49ers' 34-28 win over Green Bay, the coach took several shots at Clay Matthews, essentially labeling the outside linebacker a dirty player. And in Wisconsin, the comments were met with a strong defense of Matthews. Packers coaches Mike McCarthy and Dom Capers stood by the linebacker after his late hit and punch of 49ers tackle Joe Staley.

Harbaugh didn't hold back.

"If you're going to go to the face, come with some knuckles, not an open slap," Harbaugh told Bay Area reporters Monday. "That young man works very hard on being a tough guy. He'll have some repairing to do to his image after the slap."

For the most part, he didn't budge. McCarthy stood by the fifth-year linebacker, even bringing up Harbaugh to the team.

"I know he left his feet and, you know, playing hard," McCarthy said. "I think it's football. I think much is blown out of proportion. Clay played very well in the game. That was probably one of his couple of bad plays.

"Clay Matthews is not a dirty player, by no means. So I addressed Harbaugh's comments in the team meeting, and as always, we'll stay above it.

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An NFL source said that Matthews' hit on Colin Kaepernick is being reviewed for potential discipline and if he is fined it will be announced later in the week. The possibility of suspension is almost nil because Matthews has never been fined for an illegal hit before.

His only known fines since joining the NFL both occurred in 2010. He was fined $5,000 for a facemask penalty and $5,000 for wearing yellow shoes.

After taking Kaepernick down out of bounds, Matthews threw -- in Harbaugh's words -- "one punch and one open slap." As for the initial takedown when Matthews leaped to take down Kaepernick, the coach wasn't pleased with that, either.

"You talk about launching," Harbaugh said. "You talk about a clothesline to the neck area when our quarterback's 6, 7 feet out of bounds. I was standing there and was kind of struck. It was like, 'I've seen this play before.' I thought Emlen Tunnell."

Tunnell, a former Hall of Fame safety, "would stand in the middle of the field and wait for a receiver to cross and clothesline them," Harbaugh continued. "I was struck, 'I'm seeing Emlen Tunnell here.'"

If there was an uproar in San Francisco, there was hardly a peep in Green Bay.

Echoing McCarthy, Capers called the tackle "unfortunate" and supported Matthews' playing style. The Packers defensive coordinator pointed out other plays in the game. In defeat, Matthews finished with eight tackles (three for loss) and one sack.

"Clay's an aggressive player that's going to play with a lot of emotion," Capers said. "I thought he played a good football game yesterday. You saw him coming on minus-yardage plays. You saw him sack the quarterback. It was unfortunate, the sideline play. But I think he just misjudged where he was really. We have to make sure that doesn't happen."

The play was an over-the-line extension of the mind-set players tried taking into the season opener. Afterward, several players said they planned to play with an edge -- and plan to all season.

On Monday, the locker room was mostly vacant during the open media period, though eight-year veteran cornerback Jarrett Bush did pass through. Asked if Matthews' hit was a dirty play on Monday, Bush "yes and no." He believed the play was made in the heat of the moment.

Either way, there's undeniable bad blood between these two teams. Three straight losses to San Francisco have clearly irritated the Packers, a team that despises any perception of being "soft" or "finesse." After Matthews' hit, players from both teams rushed into the fray swinging and shoving and punching.

Bush said he heard things said he can't repeat publicly.

Do not expect either side to forget the season opener if they meet again.

"I'm pretty sure he wouldn't take it back," Bush said of the hit. "He finished a play. That's what we call a finish. Fight, finish and focus. ... I'm pretty sure a lot of their players have done the same thing. It's a heated rivalry. And we kind of got after it a little too much."

Boldin problems

Caperssaid he and his staff did not forget about 49ers receiver Anquan Boldin even though it seemed that way on Sunday.

Boldin destroyed the Packers' defense with 13 catches for 208 yards and a touchdown.

The worst part is that Capers doubled him a number of times and Boldin still beat the coverage. He said the double teams were not executed well and the veteran Boldin took advantage of it.

"It wasn't like we didn't have things up and ready," Capers said. "We just didn't execute with the kind of efficiency you need to against a veteran receiver that's been doing that for a long time. He's a good physical receiver, and we felt that we might need to double him at times, but when we did we really didn't do a real good job of it."

One of the times Boldin was doubled correctly, Kaepernick had the smarts to go away from him to convert a key third down. It was on third and 4 at the San Francisco 41 on the 49ers' final drive, and Kaepernick hit tight end Vernon Davis going the other direction.

Because of a double team on Boldin, the dime back Bush had to cover Davis one-on-one and was late getting to the flat. Even if he had followed him it's questionable whether he would have gotten there in time to tackle Davis before he made the first down.

It's probably fair to blame the safety duo of M.D. Jennings and Jerron McMillian for not executing some of them, but there were other errors, like the failure of OLB Nick Perry to bump Boldin at the line of scrimmage and keep him out of the seam on his 43-yard catch and run.

No-huddling

The risk/reward nature of Green Bay's no-huddle offense was on full display Sunday.

Yes, the Packers strung together four lightning-quick touchdown drives of 80, 62, 69 and 76 yards. All lasted 2 minutes and 48 seconds or less. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers exploited mismatches, was on target and San Francisco couldn't keep up ... for four drives.

The Packers also had five three-and-out drives, and the 49ers dominated time of possession, 38:35 to 21:25.

"Up and down," McCarthy said. "All four drives were significant as far as the length of them, our field position was poor pretty much most of the day. ... Twenty-eight points from a production standpoint, you want to be above 25. But we had too many three-and-outs. That's where we were critical of ourselves."

It doesn't sound like the Packers will be steering from the no-huddle any time soon. They saw enough in San Francisco to keep running it.

Ross averaged 13.3 yards on three kick returns and had one 9-yard punt return. On Monday, McCarthy said he wasn't pleased with the unit as a whole. The dynamic return ability of RandallCobb was absent, players missed blocks and the offense was forced to work with a long field most of the day.

Green Bay's average field position was its own 20-yard line. San Francisco, meanwhile, started at its own 33 on average.

"I thought our production in the return game was nowhere (close) to where it needed to be in the kickoff return game," special teams coach Shawn Slocum said. "We had opportunities and we didn't get it done. Our blocking was poor. We gave our offense two series starting inside the 10-yard line. That's totally unacceptable."

Cobb had one 16-yard punt return and another fair catch. As Slocum said before the opener, the third-year pro is not out of the picture yet. Depending on how Ross performs, the Packers may be inclined to lean on the reliable Cobb more.

"We'll make that decision as we go," Slocum said. "As we've said, we've got a number of guys that can do it."